Safety Issues: Hurricane Control

(2005-09-22) SafetyIssues.com

Part 3 in the SafetyIssues.com series on newest safety patents and what the inventors teach us about facing natural disasters.

A new method and system for hurricane control has been invented by Herbert Uram of Long Key, Florida. The U.S. patent is still pending. Here, Uram describes the invention and similar efforts of those before him.

The present invention relates to a method and system for hurricane control, and particularly to a method and system for inhibiting or weakening the formation of hurricanes.

An average hurricane, or typhoon, has tremendous energy which make it impractical to attempt to modify it by a brute force approach. It is therefore necessary to find a means whereby a relatively small amount of energy, if immediately inputted upon detecting the onset of a hurricane, may be effective to inhibit or at least weaken the formation of the hurricane.

The US Government once supported research into methods of hurricane modification in a project called "Stormfury." Under this project, scientists seeded clouds with silver iodide in a number of hurricanes including: Esther (1961), Beulah (1963), Debbie (1969), and Ginger (1971). However, these efforts were unsuccessful, and the project was discontinued. Since that time, little if any work for inhibiting or weakening the formation of hurricanes has been reported in the published literature.

Most hurricanes that affect the East Coast of the USA start as "waves" coming off the West African Coast, or in the Gulf of Mexico. It is generally accepted that in those parts of the world where hurricanes or typhoons occur, warming of the seawater is a causative factor. Thus, the warm water, coupled with atmospheric "waves" that come off the West Coast of Africa, unite to start hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean.

While the onset or very early stages of a hurricane can be detected in "real time" on weather satellites, to the present time there has been no practical way by which a relatively small input of energy, upon the detection of the onset of a hurricane, will be effective to inhibit or weaken the formation of the hurricane.

Summary of the invention

The present invetion is a method and system for inhibiting or weakening the formation of hurricanes, by detecting the onset of a hurricane in a region of open water and immediately cooling the surface water in the open water region. The surface water is cooled by using one or more nuclear-powered submarines to pump cooler water at a depth in the open water region to the surface of the open water region.

The surface water is cooled by effecting a heat-transfer of heat between the surface water and the cooler water at a greater depth in the open water region. More particularly, the heat-transfer is effected by pumping the cooler water present at the depth of the open water region to the surface of the open water region. Optionally, the cooler water at the depth of the open water region may be further cooled as it is pumped to the surface of the open water region.

The US Navy has a number of submarines, particularly nuclear-powered submarines, which have been retired from active duty and which could be modified for use to inhibit or weaken the formation of hurricanes in accordance with the present invention. Thus, the use of such submarines would enable implementation of the invention at relatively low cost and at a relatively early date.

A number of submarines could be deployed horizontally over a large area of the open water region where the onset of a hurricane was detected; or they could be deployed vertically at different depths of the open water region with their water pumps coupled to a common vertically-extending water conduit.

The use of submarines, particularly nuclear-powered submarines, for this purpose provides a number of advantages. They are now available, at least those that have become non-operational; they would require relatively little cost and time to retrofit them for this purpose; they can be used for long periods of time without refueling; and they are highly maneuverable so that if a number of disturbances each indicating the possible onset of a hurricane are detected within a short period of time, the submarines can be maneuvered as required to immediately act to inhibit or weaken the formation of the hurricane according to the above-described method.

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Visit our hurricane safety portals:

Hurricane Katrina News Directory
http://www.safetyissues.org/katrina

Hurricane Ophelia News Directory
http://www.safetyissues.org/ophelia

Organizations interested in participating in SafetyIssues.com's media research and development program may contact John Simmons, Chief Technology Officer, directly at 703-992-6689 or at johnsimmons@safetyissues.org


Related stories from SafetyIssues.com:

Safety Issues: Calculating the Path of a Hurricane
http://www.i-newswire.com/pr46818.html

Safety Issues: What If A Hurricane Katrina Hit New York?
http://www.i-newswire.com/pr46740.html

Safety Issues: Thundercall, The Call Before The Storm
http://www.i-newswire.com/pr46734.html

Safety Issues: Katrina Politics Mesmerizes World Media
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Safety Issues: Hurricane Katrina Safety Lessons Lost on Local Media
http://www.i-newswire.com/pr46643.html

Safety Issues: Virtual Situation Room Tracks Hurricane Ophelia
http://www.i-newswire.com/pr46546.html

Hurricane Katrina News Directory Powered by Google News
http://www.i-newswire.com/pr46460.html


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SafetyIssues.com
Contact: John Simmons,
Chief Technology Officer
703-992-6689
johnsimmons@safetyissues.org